Irene of Byzantium

Irene of Byzantium (752-9 August 803) was the Empress of the Byzantine Empire from 797 to 802, succeeding Constantine VI of Byzantium and preceding Nicephorus I of Byzantium.

Biography
Irene was born in 752 to the House of Sarantapechos, and she married Emperor Leo IV of Byzantium. She had a son, the future Emperor Constantine VI of Byzantium, and her husband died in 780. Irene became regent for their son, and she originally wanted to marry her son to Charlemagne's daughter Rotrude, but the engagement broke off in 788. She had to fight the rebel Elpidius as well as the Abbasid Caliphate, to which Elpidius later defected. In 797, Irene deposed and blinded her son after siding with the church in a dispute against her son's marriage to his mistress, and she became the sole empress. In 802, she was overthrown by her newly-appointed finance minister, who became Nicephorus I of Byzantium.